Takahe takes flight to Canada

Roi Toia has been sculpting a takahe for an exhibition in Canada. Photo / Stephen Parker

For 17 years a Canadian art gallery has had an affiliation with Maori artists and for its 20th anniversary celebration it will display several new Maori artworks.

Among those chosen to display their work are four Rotorua artists, Roi Toia, Thomas Ratima, Lewis Tamihana Gardiner and Cori Buster Marsters.

Spirit Wrestler Gallery in Vancouver represents master-level Inuit, Northwest Coast, and Maori art, three different indigenous cultures.

Mr Toia has been working on his piece for the exhibition over the past six weeks.

"It's a takahe, it talks of conservation. In ancient Maori times the takahe were our kaitiaki [guardians] and now that they are endangered we are their kaitiaki. I have had the eyes I'm using for a long time ... they kind of humanise the piece ... I'm thinking of calling it Through their eyes."

Mr Toia is also a volunteer firefighter for the West Rotoiti Brigade and recently helped fight bush fires in Tasmania.

"Seeing the devastation with the native fauna and the animals in Tasmania is hard and this is giving me a chance to say something in the visual world."

He said the exhibition was also a wonderful way to showcase the relationship between contemporary Maori art and the gallery. "They started showing some of our work 17 years ago and it ticked all the boxes for the type of work they sell. It's an awesome exchange and collaboration."

Mr Toia said one of the gallery representatives, Nigel Reading, often came to New Zealand to search for new works, making it special that four artists from Rotorua were chosen for the exhibition.

"It's not only an awesome exchange and relationship, it also enables people to make a living and in an artists' sense it pays dividends."

- The exhibition runs from April 23 to May 14, pieces can be viewed online at www.spiritwrestler.com